By the time they eventually get round to 'X4' Patrick Stewart will be in his 80's. Hugh Jackman will have probably moved on from Wolverine, so Halle Berry will likely be the only lead interested in returning. Anna Paquin may return if Rogue has a good role, so I can see a scenario where Storm is leading the school with Rogue and Iceman (possibly Colossus) as teachers. Plus new characters who have joined over the years.

Fox will eventually go forward in time with the franchise, but if First Class is successful they are more likely to make a sequel. Why would they get the old cast back together when they have a perfectly good new one?

The claim that we have a perfectly good new cast is assuming a lot, since the only characters guaranteed to survive this movie are Xavier and Magneto. Before Singer came on the concept of a trilogy was floating around and it made more sense then because they were building a cast that would stay on for a long time for sure while with this new cast it's only speculation. Unless the next film yet again takes place while Storm, Cyclops, and Jean are too young to participate, there is going to have to be a big time jump and they'll have to get a new cast for a First Class 2. Even if Havok or Banshee survive, they clearly can't play the same character if the time period is supposed to be 20 years later with shooting only 1-3 years later.

Under the original concept for First Class I would have said it was 100% guaranteed they would not make an X4 because they would be setting up characters they would be following for multiple films but it's not as likely they're going to make a trilogy all set in the 60s under Singer's concept. First Class seems like it could easily be just a look back at the past and not a saga that takes place in the past. The concept of a line of X-Men Origins films fell apart after Wolverine so the concept of First Class trilogy could easily fall apart as well if Singer wants something else.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Warren Ellis

Cyclops is the best superhero in the world. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the Batman. He's been in intensive training since his early teenage years to lead the first-ever mutant rescue and security team. This is a guy who gets up every morning asking himself how he can be better.

We are talking about a three decade span to cover with prequels. No one involved with the franchise wants to move forward. You'll hear Donner toss around the notion of X-4 and mention how it is actively on the pipeline, but there is virtually no value without Cyclops/Jean and Storm leading the school. The absolute necessity of recasting Xavier/Jackman pretty much kills any return value it may have had from the OT. I think Fox even realizes that they have failed to maximize the franchises potential and the only way to do that is to give neglected characters the on screen justice they deserve.

As far as leaping 15-20 years... a bald, wheel chair ridden McAvoy pretty much adds ten years. Just make him pale, feeble, and more wrinkly. If they wait three years, audiences will see a natural progression. FC2 is the only thing that makes sense as far as the next step considering they went forward with this.

Ah, I'm an idiot. But even those characters depend on what the story for FC2 is so I should have just said the chance for them returning for the sequel instead. Beast is guaranteed because he knows Storm in X3, unless they just reduce him to a cameo or something to establish he was with the team and that he's off to start a political career. I actually don't see Moira being a major player for the entire trilogy unless they do stick to the 60s-70s for most of it.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Warren Ellis

Cyclops is the best superhero in the world. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the Batman. He's been in intensive training since his early teenage years to lead the first-ever mutant rescue and security team. This is a guy who gets up every morning asking himself how he can be better.

Fox will eventually go forward in time with the franchise, but if First Class is successful they are more likely to make a sequel. Why would they get the old cast back together when they have a perfectly good new one?

Yes, I agree here. We're more likely to get a First Class sequel, and an X4 is possible.

Quote:

The 'X4' we may eventually get won't be a follow on from X3. Too much time will have past. It'll probably be set 10-15 years after and will involve whoever from the original cast wants to return (the characters that lived anyway), and new characters to ensure further sequels.

Exactly. We may get Halle back as Storm (but I doubt we'll see Storm in much of an action role). It will be a new set of characters, plus Rogue, Colossus, Iceman, Kitty. Depends of course what Singer wants to do, how he sees it moving forwards.

__________________Show me an X-Men comic where Mystique is the leader and walks round all day as a bored blonde

At First I thought this was a one shot "look back" sort of thing. But, recent interviews with Vaughn and Singer suggest otherwise. They both mentioned it being a "fresh start" and a "new beginning" for the franchise. I think Singer definitely has a story planned for future films.

He'll probably do First Class 2. I doubt Vaughn is up for anything more than this one film.

We'll see. Vaughn had stated previously that he wanted to stay away from adapted stories... and then he jumped on this movie when he was offered it. If First Class is successful, they might ask him to stay on.

He'll probably do First Class 2. I doubt Vaughn is up for anything more than this one film.

The Kick Ass sequel comic is already being written and drawn right now so they will want to release the film right after the comic release and Vaughn will be directing that. I see that movie coming out in 2012.

Edit: Found it

Quote:

He also spoke with FusedFilm in which he revealed after director Matthew Vaughn is done with X-Men: First Class around April of next year, they will start pre-production on the Kick-Ass sequel right away.

So after First Class, Vaughn will be doing Kick Ass 2 until it is released in 2012 and Fox will not wait on Vaughn unless they plan to release First Class 2 in 2013 then I can see him coming back.

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"You can leave a penny, you can't take a penny. You can leave a penny anytime. You have to spend $10 to take a penny. Store policy."
"Since when has this been store policy?"
"Uh, since my boss made up the policy. You gonna pay? You're holding up my line of one other person. You can't afford your milk, step aside. What, daddy didn't give you enough milk money? Little baby gonna cry about it? Just step aside."And that is how Uncle Ben dies.

I'm not surprised that Vaughn took this gig. He's been wanting to direct a big budget superhero film for quite some time and came very close with X3 and Thor. He's even mentioned that he would have loved to direct the upcoming Superman Reboot. I think Singer had a lot to do with getting Vaughn on board though. Especially after the previous experience Vaughn had with this studio, when he was attached to X3.

I prefer Vaughn but I don't get the claims Singer is lackluster at directing action. Nightcrawler vs Secret Service is one of the greatest action scenes ever in a super hero film IMO.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Warren Ellis

Cyclops is the best superhero in the world. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the Batman. He's been in intensive training since his early teenage years to lead the first-ever mutant rescue and security team. This is a guy who gets up every morning asking himself how he can be better.